It should come as no surprise that Android is due for a v5.1.1 release at some point, even if only to fix a particularly well-known memory leak. Now, thanks to an SDK update, we've got good reason to anticipate the new version is probably due out in the very near future. If developers check the SDK Manager for updates, they should see a new revision to the Platform SDK with a product description that reads "Android SDK Platform 5.1.1."

Now that the 5.1.1 version number is out there, it stands to reason Google has finalized the code and is either running some final tests or preparing for a release. AOSP still hasn't been updated with the new release, but we can probably expect that to change very soon. Once a version is finalized, new source code and firmwares usually come out in a fairly short window of time. Hopefully, this will also prompt the release of updates for the overlooked Nexus devices that still haven't received 5.1.

Note: Yes, this revision did come out on April 1st, which means it could possibly be a prank. However, since it's still around today, and it would be an abnormally subtle joke compared to most of the things we've seen on AFD, we're assuming this is legitimate.

That's actually the point. Aside from Nexus and GPE devices, only a few Motorola phones (and one or two historically relevant launch devices) have ever had the x.0.0 release of any Android version. Google puts those releases out and then solves the critical bugs. The OEMs work on fine-tuning their releases and wait for Google to push a more stable version before they proceed with formal releases to their customers.

LeVvE

Android is already insanely fragmented and this won't help. Some OEMs will never release an update after the initial 5.0 and get all these fixes that should have been in the original release.

Luckily I'm running a custom rom so it doesn't affect me that much but I'd be rather annoyed if I was running a stock rom.

pfmiller

That's their own fault then. If they only want to test and release a single update, don't pick the first release after a major update to be the one, that's just stupid.

Respectfully, everything you're complaining about is completely wrong. The "fragmentation" shtick doesn't apply here. Nobody counts 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 differently because it would be silly to make that distinction.

When people talk about fragmentation, it's in relation to versions that make changes to the feature set of the OS and the API, because those prevent people from using apps that make use of new features.

Look, bugs happen. It's absurd to claim that all of them can be caught before a release. (Granted, some of the bigger ones should have been, but that's not the point.) Since some bugs are bound to make it into public releases, there are going to be maintenance releases that fix them. Stop whining that Google *is* fixing bugs. Literally every mobile OS goes through this same issues. At least this isn't Windows Phone where major problems were never fixed, or Symbian where phones could be bricked with a specific SMS bug that remained even on new models for over a year.

LeVvE

I know bugs happen. I didnt complain about them actually fixing things. Thats great and I'm happy they actually bother.

What I was refering too was for example the memory leaks in 5.0.

Windows Phone is so shit its not even on my radar.

thermoplastics

"(Granted, some of the bigger ones should have been, but that's not the point.)"

Actually, that is the point.

PI

The hell,, few moments ago i was reading Moto Engineer happy to have 5.1 testing ,,, now they will back of and same old cycle of testing 5.1.1

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

...thus creating even bigger fragmentation than which android already suffers from

Guess it's never going away at this point

sl

Why doesn't google then break more of the core os apps (clock, calculator, phone) and more of the system functionality and put them on the play store or with google play services? This will give them the ability to fix more bugs and add more features without a new os version.

hi

Still haven't got 5.1 on my Nexus 6...step up the process Google!!

qqwewq

They've released 5.1 for N6. 510 fastboot oem unlock faggot

Jason Brown

calm down. too much busy work to backup everything.

rmkilc

Flash the OTA.

Jason Brown

does that wipe everything?

rmkilc

No. It's the OTA.

Jason Brown

oh for sure. thanks. do you flash it the same way you would flash a rom or do i need to install adb?

Well, at least google do fix stuff. Not the experience I had with sony or htc.

duder12

This is an extremely stupid comment. All the OEMs are pushing out the original release of Lollipop except Motorola who is pushing 5.1.

The other phones are much worse off considering they may be stuck on 5.0 while nexus devices are getting fixed up.

ansh

I'm using 5.1 on android one device

fhj

Its not a stupid comment, now yours, now that is an extremely stupid comment.

Влатко Стојанов

Doesn't matter, had 5.1

Yeah

Android one owners - Dual-sim version testers.

Ramon

This type of comments always blow my mind. Sure you have a great experience maintaining an operating system! Right?

Maintaining an OS is a really complex task, and specially in Lollipop, where Google changed main core parts of the OS. I'm 100% sure they tested the hell out of it. But you cannot get updates at the speed of Android and stability like in a Debian Linux distribution. That is simply not possible. Google likes to iterate fast. So you get shiny versions full of new stuff and bugs, and polished versions with almost no new features but more stable.

If you want stability, better stay in 4.4 until at least 5.2 or 5.3, and never buy a Nexus, better go with Samsung or LG. If you want to be on the bleeding edge, then learn to live with a few bugs in Android.

Over all, please I suggest you politely to stop talking that way about stuff you don't understand, 'cause you end up looking... bad.

Victor Rusu

I appreciate your response and I realize that maintaining an OS is really complex, however I still can't understand how such a bug like the memory leak is still not completely fixed 6 months after Lollipop was released and the bug report filed.

pfmiller

Yup, no matter how you spin it there's no excuse for that.

Brad

you do realize not every device is experiencing it, right? And that means that they may not have seen it.

Victor Rusu

What do you mean? I'm pretty sure every device running stock Lollipop is experiencing it.

Brad

I haven't experienced it on my N6 through 5.0, 5.0.1, or 5.1. I also didn't experience it in 5.0 for my N5

Victor Rusu

That's strange, a friend of mine with a N5 has been complaining about it and I'm experiencing it on my Z2 too.

Brad

I have a friend that has the lag, too... but not every device is getting it. It is weird.

EowynCarter

I don't have a problem either.
Probably because of my habit of switching my phone off during the night.

Nathan Fernandes

I experience a lot of lag on my Nexus 6, may be because I have a lot of apps installed.. oh and instagram just closes almost every time i browse through it

Can confirm. I've never experienced any of the described issues on my N5, and I'm pushing that thing pretty hard these days with testing and development. There are certain apps and behaviors that drastically spike the occurrence and visibility of certain bugs, so only some people are going to experience them.

pfmiller

Within a few days of Lollipop's release the issue flew to near the top of the AOSP bug tracker, maybe not everyone sees the problem but it's not exactly hard to find someone who is.

Brad

I'm not denying it exists - I'm just saying it's plausible nobody in Google saw it before release

With all that money Google has, hire more people for the software department and QA teams! C'mon! Half a year later? It should be squashed!

mattcoz

Have you ever tried to track down and fix a memory leak? It's difficult even in small projects let alone something as big as Android. Also, "the" memory leak was a actually a collection of leaks, many of which were fixed in 5.1.

PI

u r patially right but no ,, with this much money , resources like ATAP ,, talent nd u r doing mistakes again and again ,,,sorry u r doing it wrong.
Bug were in ios and Win too but look how much they took time to corrrect that

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Google doesn't test shit
If they did - the memory leak found in 5.0/5.1 would not exist AT ALL

ki

Testing?? You can't seriously put android and testing in the same sentence lately

h_f_m

5.0 -> 5.1 -> 5.1.1 is not meaningful fragmentation.

Apps will work on all three identically.

ssj4Gogeta

Fragmentation? This is still at API level 22.

Matthew Engel

Who gives a fuck.... in reality it's not a big deal.

ba

WHERE 5.1 FOR THE NEXUS 4

PI

Breaking News :- spotted 5.1.2 in easter egg in 5.1.1
Google just making it tough for Developers and Samsung fans

jigymaz

Lol,, btw why Samsung fans

PI

Bcoz ".1" update means their end story ,,, the know its all over ,,not gonna get

Vlad TZ

The original S3 mini was promised an update. It came with 4.1.1. It got updated to 4.1.2.

Guest

Start making 90 dollars every day for working on-line from your home for several hrs a day... Get regular payment on a weekly basis... All you need is a personal computer, net connection, along with a little spare time...------>>>>> -> PROFESSION OF EARNING ONLINE MONEY!! <-

I hope that nexus 5 and 7 (2013) will be the first devices to receive 5.1.1 update. Nexus 7 (2013) never received 5.1 update.

DanSan

i dont have any problems with my nexus 7 (2013) running 5.0.2 but i'd still like to get my 5.1 update. i just use it to browse the web and do other bs things so not a huge deal.

Brad

I'm sure this will be buried - but do people understand what fragmented means? A minor update doesn't change the way apps etc work, really... the APIs and all are still the same... hell, even 5.0 to 5.1 isn't really fragmentation... would you call windows fragmented when you look at how many updates get pushed in its cycle??

Jason Brown

"fragmentation" is only an issue b/c apple can create a "chart" and poke fun of us android users

PI

bang bang boom

Brad

Really version doesn't matter until apps stop supporting that OS... so, what, ICS? Probably even further back... but ICS started google now, right?

Renaldi I.

Technically 4.1 Jellybean, but watev

Brad

So that's where I'd say fragmentation really starts...

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Except that it's actually a much bigger issue

Renaldi I.

Not as much as an issue as it was before Play Services, and since OEMs started to update more of their devices

JD

Except play services is a hack and poorly implemented causing terrible battery use.

Guest

No, its an issue for people stuck on an old OS. Google fanboys gettting butthurt by Apple, is not an issue at all.

Let's hope this fixes whatever is making my N7 (2012) and nvidia Shield Tablet laggy. I have to restart each one at least once a day to be usable, normally right after waking them up. Might have to turn them off when not in use.

zlt

And after 5.1.1 they will release another bugfix ..

Simon Belmont

Please forgive me. This is totally off topic, and probably a dumb question, but I figured I'd ask knowledgeable folks here at AP. I noticed this screen in Photos and it looks like it would let me turn on auto backup even fi I don't use Google+. Is this new or will it still prompt me for a Google+ account eventually (afraid to try because I don't want to accidentally set up Google+) because it even shows me Gmail account and 15GB of space free?

You won't accidentally a Google+ account. It asks you for a confirmation before that. Just carefully read the dialogues that appear.

Simon Belmont

Yeah. That's what I thought (I have seen that dialog pop up a few times, accidentally, in other apps that wanted me to sign up).

But, does this mean that the Auto Backup setting in Photos can be used without a Google+ account? I actually let it select my Gmail account and it didn't seem to care that I wasn't a G+ user, and wanted to start uploading. I was always under the impression that a G+ account was mandatory for Auto Backup. If I was wrong all this time, I'd be pissed (lol). If it's not does that mean people were just complaining that Auto Backup was part of Photos which is part of Google+ APK? It would make more sense that they separate the app and let Drive handle it all.

Might explain the lack of Nexus 4 update, and some of the other devices people are begging for.

jamaall

Motorola will now have to delay updates further so we can have 5.1.1!

scuttlefield

Pleeeease tell me this is what the N9 update is waiting on!

haseoxth

Hope this update will fix the memory leak issue entirely...
Lots people wait so long for this to be solved.

JG

I wonder how big of a change there will be between 5.1 and 5.1.1 - Hopefully it's not too much and Moto can quickly add in the extra tweaks before officially starting the 5.1 update... Might as well squash all of the memory leaks and what-not in one fowl swoop...

Ian Santopietro

*swings a chicken at @JG42:disqus

JD

Eh Google wtf is the Google Camera update with camera2 support? Its been literally almost a year since you announced camera2

Andrea Bittau

exactly ! and also for me camera has some delay, really annoying... :(

mizkitty

Half the Nexus devices still don't have 5.1.
But Xposed only works on 5.0.2 so I'm in no rush...

Awayze

Just make the N7 smooth already. Sick of using this rubbish os. I would have stayed on KK had I known how bad LP would get unless I restarted it every day. 5.1.1 better have fixed it if I ever get the update on the N7. I hope it's the reason why few Nexus devices have been left out for 5.1.

Gus70

I never got 5.1 OTA. Still on 5.0.1. I know I can side load but not really having issues with my Nexus 5.

Dimitri

I just received the 5.1 update here in Australia. So far I have never gas any problems during my journey with Android Lollipop. I guess there's a lot of bug fixes due to the fact they literally had to change the whole display of 4.4.

Diego Carmona

Still on 5.0.1 on my Nexus 4. I can only hope I'll get the 5.1.1 with (almost) no bugs to make all this wait worth it.

New SDK's usually come out within a few hours (up to a day) after a new version of Android is released. It's effectively a simultaneous release. However, that happens because developers need both the SDK and the new version to be able to implement features found in the new version. In this case, there's no change to the API, so nothing new for developers to test in their apps.

The significance of the new SDK is simply that there is now a new version number appearing in print, which indicates there's something relatively final in the works. Nothing is certain, but it's a good clue. There are no clues as to how much longer before there's a release, but if Google's history with updates follows the same patterns, the first maintenance update (5.1.1, in this case) would likely come out within the next two weeks.

Simon Belmont

Hey Cody. This is completely off topic (and makes me feel like a noob), but you always write such thoughtful and complete replies, I figured I'd ask you, plus it has a little to do with a recent teardown you did.

I was always under the impression that a G+ account was MANDATORY to get the Auto-Backup to work, so I never tried it. But with all the talk of Drive taking over Auto-Backup, I thought I'd look at the current setup, which is what prompted my question below. You did a teardown of Drive a few weeks ago and concluded that Auto Backup was being moved from G+/Photos to Drive (which is great). My question centers around the settings in the current Photos app (the one that comes with G+). Right now, if we turn on Auto Backup, but we DON'T have a G+ account (as in I never signed up to use it), will it still automatically backup my phone photos and videos? I only ask because it doesn't seem to care that I don't have a G+ account (I never signed up) and it looks like it would actually work (it shows my 15GB of free space and looks like it's just waiting for me to turn on Wi-Fi to start the process). Finally, would it be worth waiting until Drive takes over the Auto-Backup duties or would I be okay to use it in Photos, provided it works without signing up for a G+ account? I just don't want a messy transition, if you know what I mean.

You're asking for some specifics that I just don't have and can't really discern from what I've seen in a teardown. If you're really averse to having a G+ account, your safest bet is to wait for Drive to officially take over, which I believe is scheduled to begin rolling out next week. All things considered, transition does sound slightly messy; so even if you don't mind a G+ account, it's better just to wait. Fewer headaches that way.

Simon Belmont

Thanks for the quick reply, Cody. I understand, and I should have guessed that you used G+, and probably wouldn't know (my bad), but totally appreciate the response. :)

So, Drive is officially taking over for Auto Backup next week? That's great news. Does that mean an update to the Drive APK or will this just be a server-side switch? I'm guessing the former, but figured I'd ask you. I'll definitely just wait until next week, then. I've waited this long to back up my photos and videos, so what's another week? :)

Google's blog posts are lacking in specificity in just the right ways that I wouldn't want to make solid bets, but they read like auto-backup will be offered by both Drive and Google+. It seems like there wouldn't be a point to these posts if Drive wasn't going to have auto-backup, and one passage clearly indicates G+ will still have it. I assume they will talk to each other to prevent dupes, or Play services will handle it.

Cool

I agree with your assessment. The Google blog post sort of makes reference to drive using auto backup.

"Photos and videos that do count against quota that are backed up to Drive via Auto Backup will only count once against a storage limit, but Apps users may want to review their Google+ Photos Auto Backup settings to avoid inadvertent syncing to their corporate Drive account." That first sentence seems to definitely indicate an auto backup for drive, in addition to the original Google+ one, unless both times auto backup is mentioned is for just Google+. Its kind of ambiguous. But I'm hopeful.

Simon Belmont

@disqus_WYe2zKIFH4:disqus Very true. I didn't see that last line of the Google blog post the last time, and it makes a lot of sense.

Oh, it's a little inside baseball, but I am a super-wordy guy. I have a bad habit of writing a lot in replies and then trimming them down or cancelling them outright. The reply about when the new version should come out was almost twice as long, but I trimmed it down because I touched on a subject that would just draw out more crazy, wild-eyed responses about fragmentation. Seriously, why did that topic resurface? It's so irrelevant these days...

Simon Belmont

I like wordy replies. The more information and thought a post has put into it, the more interesting it is for me to read, which is why I enjoy your posts here at AP, and your replies in the comments.

As for fragmentation, I don't think that will ever stop being a banner that gets waved around, sadly. Android 5.1.1 is not fragmentation at all, IMO, but people will always look for a reason to shout it from the rooftops, apparently. It's all Lollipop (5.0.x to 5.1 to 5.1.1 and beyond). Yes, there was an API jump from 5.0 to 5.1, but there won't be from 5.1 to 5.1.1, I'm sure, so I don't see what the big deal is either.

nickBeez

I came so close to doing a hard reset soooo many times since I got the lollipop update on my Galaxy S5 in the beginning of February which, for all intents and purposes, turned the best phone I ever had into a steaming pile of crap. I think just about everyone can agree with me on that fact....but I just received an OTA update this morning about an hour and a half ago and my phone is BLAZING fast again!!! I mean it's fast to the point where I might even slow down the transitions/animations cuz I can't even see them happening! I almost thought I was gonna have to try and find a new go-to phone but now I'm anxiously excited to get my hands on the S6!........is anyone else getting this update?

Really? That gives me hope for the Note 4. Ever since the Lollipop update last week, it's been acting pretty janky and unreliable. The camera takes even longer to launch, and even the lockscreen behavior is visibly bad. I'm optimistic (perhaps blindly) that this update was a little rushed and a new one will roll out soon-ish to fix this stuff.

Merkin McGee

The Android version will change from Lollipop to travel information with this release.

Double Dede

Hi,
How can I rollback to kitkat?
Lollipop version is lagging and not fun work with it.